Transmigrated as the Villainess Princess - Chapter 176

Chapter 176: Love’s Rift
He had promised himself that he would respect her choice. For days, he wandered the city’s streets in a daze, her words echoing endlessly in his mind, “I am already engaged.”

The world seemed duller now, as if someone had drained the colors from his surroundings.

Yet he still chose to walk away. If this was what she wanted, if this was the life she had chosen, he would honor her decision.

But fate seemed to toy with him cruelly.

No matter how far he tried to distance himself, their paths continued to cross. At the marketplace, he would see her laughing with her friends, her eyes shining like warm sunlight.

In the temple courtyard, she would brush past him unknowingly, the scent of her hair lingering long after she had gone.

Even during the quiet of night, when he sought solace in the shadows, he would glimpse her silhouette beneath the moonlight, dancing, carefree, beautiful.

Each encounter chipped away at his resolve. His feelings twisted deeper and darker, until his heart was no longer his own.

It burned within him, not just love, but something far more consuming. He knew he could not have her. But that truth only made his obsession grow stronger.

Then came the day of her wedding. He had planned to stay away, but some desperate, self-destructive part of him led him to the ceremony.

Cloaked in shadows, he stood at the edge of the crowd, watching as she smiled beside her groom. Her smile, the same one that had once filled him with warmth, now tore him apart.

He should have turned away. Should have walked back into the abyss that had always awaited him.

But instead, he stayed, long enough to hear her vows, long enough to feel his heart splintering within his chest. And then chaos struck.

Screams shattered the evening’s peace as masked figures burst into the groom’s home. Fire spread rapidly, devouring everything in its path.

Blood painted the walls, and bodies littered the floors. The massacre was swift, calculated.

In the aftermath, her groom’s family was gone. Slain without mercy. The woman’s gown, once white and pure, was stained crimson as she stumbled from the ruins.

She was shaking, her face streaked with tears and soot, and when she saw him standing there, her eyes turned sharp with rage.

“You… you did this!” Her voice was hoarse with grief, yet there was no doubt in her accusation.

He froze, stunned.

“I didn’t,” he whispered. “I swear to you, I didn’t.”

“Liar!” she screamed. “You couldn’t stand that I chose him, so you destroyed him! You…” Her voice broke. “You murdered them all!”

“No…” He stepped closer, desperate to make her understand. “Please, you have to believe me. I would never…”

But she staggered back, her gaze filled with nothing but hatred. “I should have known,” she spat. “You’re a monster.”

The words struck deeper than any blade.

He could have told her the truth, that the massacre had been the work of those seeking to destabilize her family’s influence, that her groom’s household had been targeted long before he ever knew her.

But he saw it in her eyes, no explanation would reach her.

So he let her believe it.

He let her hate him.

If it kept her safe, if it kept her alive, he would bear her loathing for all eternity. And so she lived, burning with resentment, her heart hardened by grief.

She despised him openly, spitting venom at the mere mention of his name. Whenever their paths crossed, she would glare at him with a hatred so fierce it threatened to consume her.

Yet despite her anger, he could not stay away. He lingered in the shadows, watching over her silently, her unseen guardian.

When assassins came for her, he destroyed them before they could draw their blades. When illness struck her, he secretly left medicine at her door.

When she fell asleep by her window on cold winter nights, he cloaked her in warmth before disappearing into the dark. But no matter what he did, her hatred never wavered.

And then came the day when her life, her short, fleeting mortal life, began to slip away.

He watched helplessly as age crept upon her, stealing the strength from her limbs, the fire from her eyes.

She no longer cursed him when she saw him. By then, her voice had grown too weak. Yet the loathing in her gaze never faded.

Even on her deathbed, as she lay beneath thin sheets, her body frail and cold, she turned her face away from him when he visited.

“Go,” she rasped. “I don’t want you here.”

He knelt beside her, his fingers trembling as he reached for her hand. For centuries, he had endured her hate, but now, as she lay dying, he could no longer bear it.

“I didn’t do it,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “I never hurt him… I never hurt you.”

But she closed her eyes, her face twisted with bitterness. “I don’t believe you,” she murmured. Then she was gone.

He remained by her side long after her final breath had left her. His fingers brushed her hair from her face, the face he had loved for a lifetime and more.

For centuries, he had thought he could endure her hatred. But as he gazed down at her lifeless form, the weight of her scorn settled heavily in his chest.

It felt as though the very core of him had been hollowed out, as if the void he once commanded now resided within him.

He had loved her wholeheartedly. And she had hated him just as fiercely.

A love twisted by obsession. A heart consumed by rage.

In the end, her hatred had outlasted her life.

And now, he was left with nothing but her memory, and the cruel, unending torment of what could have been.

In the days that followed her passing, he remained by her grave, unmoving. The winds howled through the trees, carrying with them whispers of regret and sorrow.

He no longer felt hunger, thirst, or fatigue, only the cold emptiness that gnawed at his soul.

The world seemed quieter now, lonelier. Each sunrise felt like a cruel reminder that she was gone, that her smile, her laughter, even her anger, had vanished from his world.

Yet still, he lingered by her resting place.

“If hating me brought you peace,” he whispered, his voice hollow, “then I’ll carry that burden forever.”